


Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Salty

by cattyk8



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen, Ghost Lilly, Ghost Lilly Kane, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 22:26:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17630855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cattyk8/pseuds/cattyk8
Summary: An AU of Veronica Mars season 1, with Lilly Ex Machina.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Irma66](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irma66/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lilly Kane might've been dead for months, but she still looks out for Veronica Mars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is posted to celebrate the birthday of that most awesome of beta readers in the VM fandom, [@Irma66](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irma66/)! Thank you for being amazing and supportive and for teaching me all the things I never knew I never knew about things like sweaters and scones and orange soda.
> 
> The first chapter of this fic was written as a ficlet for [Promptober Fest 2018](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16154261/)’s Day 16 prompt, “Salt.” Irma66 said she’d like to see more of this AU, so I thought I’d give it a go. If you’ve read this already and remember it, feel free to skip to the next chapter.

The first time it happens is when Veronica is methodically cutting a white cotton dress with a torn straps into tiny, unrecognizable pieces. The white scraps fall like snow into the trashcan, covering the music box Veronica threw in there just this morning. Lilly doesn’t think her best friend even realizes that her cheeks are drenched, and she winds ghostly arms around the girl who feels as dead inside as Lilly is on the outside.

Lilly knows ghosts are supposed to feel cold when they touch humans, but Veronica seems to lean into her, so the dead girl presses her lips to her friend’s cheek in a desperate attempt to offer what comfort she can.

Suddenly her lips are wet and she tastes salt. In the next moment, Veronica is gasping and pulling away. “L-L-Lilly?!”

“Ronica?” Green eyes widen. “You can see me?”

“Oh, Lilly!”

The live girl all but throws herself at the dead one, and Lilly is shocked to feel thin arms holding her too tightly. Then she folds herself into the hug because god knows they both need it right now. For the next several minutes, maybe hours, Lilly holds the best friend she has in the world as the other girl sobs her eyes out. “Shh,” she says over and over. “Shh.”

“The world has gone wrong, Lilly,” Veronica mumbles. “Everything hurts. Everyone hurts me.”

“I know, Ronica.” There is one person for whom Lilly can be gentle right now, and Veronica Mars is it.

Lilly was beyond pissed when she was murdered, her spirit freezing with fury. And as she’s spent the better part of two months watching her friend’s life fall apart as the people who were supposed to have loved her abandon and betray her, her rage has solidified into something solid and sharp.

Her hit list seems to grow a name for every week she has been dead. Aaron Echolls. Celeste Kane. Clarence Wiedman. Jake Kane. Dick Casablancas. Duncan Kane. Beaver Casablancas. Lianne Mars.

Lilly isn’t sure how she’s going to rip these people apart, but she’s vowed to find a way to do so for what they’ve done to her and to her best friend.

“How are you here?” Veronica asks her wonderingly. “I was just wishing for you and you appeared.”

Lilly smiles wryly. “You think I’m a pearly gates kind of gal? I’ve been here the whole time, Veronica.”

“H-here? Like, with me?”

She nods. “Mostly. Sometimes I check on the Donut or the ‘rents. Sometimes I look in on Logan, who’s almost as big a mess as you are.”

“Nobody’s as big a mess as I am,” Veronica says bitterly. “Not after last night. Not after this morning.”

Lilly’s own eyes fill. “I know,” she whispers. “I know, Ronica.”

She hugs her friend again.

“I still don’t understand how you’re here,” Veronica mutters. “But I’m so glad you are. Can you stay?”

“I don’t know,” Lilly admits. “But I’ll stay for as long as I can.”

They spend all afternoon and the evening together. Lilly doesn’t need to eat or drink, but she and her best friend spend the whole time talking as if their worlds didn’t come crashing down in pieces the day Aaron Echolls bashed Lilly’s head in with an ash tray.

After Veronica falls asleep late that night, Lilly feels cold again and knows she’s become incorporeal. But they experiment, and she discovers the secret to her physical form: Veronica’s tears and heartfelt wish that she be there.

And it’s not something that limits her, either; though she makes sure to spend a little time with her friend every time she manifests, once she has been called to corporeal form, Lilly is free to go where she pleases, invisible to everyone else unless she focuses hard and channels a lot of energy into being seen, and able to stay this way until Veronica falls asleep again. After that, Lilly can only appear in Veronica’s dreams until she tastes the salt of her friend’s tears once more.

As the weeks and months go by, Veronica cries less, plans more. Lilly sees her friend is investigating her murder, and while she is happy to have someone so committed to seeing she gets justice for what is done to her, she can’t help but worry for her friend. So she does some planning of her own.

Now that Lilly has a way to affect the physical world, she focuses on more than building up her friend’s flagging spirits—though of course she still takes the time to lecture Veronica on her fashion choices and infuse some much-needed Lilly-style encouragement into the other blond’s life.

As she Lilly watches her former posse turn on her best friend, she keeps adding to that hit list. She might’ve been fabulous in a bubblegum Lolita kind of way as a live girl, but as a dead girl Lilly Kane has decided she’ll make one hell of a poltergeist.

She’s got a list, after all. It’s about time she started crossing names off of it. And she’s going to start with Hollywood superstar Aaron Echolls.

“This is for Logan,” she says, channeling her energy as she tears his trophy room apart.

“And this is for me,” she says, as she tampers with the brakes on his prized Ferrari.

After she walks away from his wreck off a cliff along the PCH, Lilly turns her gaze and her feet toward the house that used to be her home, where Celeste Kane is standing in her closet, trying to decide which outfit conveys “tragedy-struck mother” without making her look sallow or unattractive in any way.

“You’re next,” she promises.

But she has time. She floats to Neptune High, the school she once ruled with Veronica at her side. She watches her best friend flick a knife open and start to cut a boy free from the flagpole he’s been duct taped to.

“Go, Pirates!” she hears Veronica sneer.

“That’s my Ronica,” she whispers, smiling. Then her attention is caught by the boy at the flagpole, the considering look he sends her best friend’s way.

She smiles. Eventually, she knows, Veronica will find new best friends to fill her life with, even if she’ll never be able to replace the fabulous Lilly Kane. In the meantime, she’s got a list of names of people to punish and a cute little blond girl to protect.

And she can do it, she knows. She’s armed with the salt from her best friend’s tears and the love in her heart. That’s all a dead girl really needs to kick ass anyway. She’ll leave the combat boots and snarky comments to Veronica Mars. Lilly’s got her own agenda.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lilly decides to drop in on somebody else and deliver a few hard home truths in person.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just tell me who did this to you,” Veronica says one night, frustrated as she goes over the casefile she’s constructed on her computer. “I mean, I know it wouldn’t be admissible in court, but at least I’d have an idea of where to look.”

Lilly knows exactly where Veronica needs to look. In her air vent at her house, and in the pool house at Logan’s. But she also knows that there is no way in hell she is sending Veronica Mars into that pit of vipers.

So she lies. It’s possibly the one thing, besides sex and taking care of Veronica Mars, that Lilly Kane has ever considered herself good at. “Can’t, Ronica. It’s the rules.”

Veronica seems to accept this. But this new Veronica Mars, who’s burnt and crusty on the outside to hide the fact that she’s still a gooey marshmallow on the inside, has learned to push boundaries. “Not even a hint?” she asks, tilting her head.

Lilly laughs. “That head tilt of yours is a deadly weapon, Veronica Mars. All right, I can tell you this: my parents didn’t kill me, and neither did Duncan. Doesn’t mean they’re not all still assholes.”

“I don’t think Dad ever thought any of them killed you. But they were really skeevy about the investigation, and it was obvious they were hiding _something_. What, I have no clue.”

“I hope you know I’m not going to tell you that either.” Lilly watches her friend deflate. Veronica stares wistfully at a photo of the Fab Four. And suddenly Lilly has an idea. “Have you tried telling Logan?”

“Telling Logan what?”

“Why your dad went after my parents like that, duh.”

Veronica grimaces. “We’re not exactly on speaking terms. He hates me.”

“He needs to get over himself and apologize,” Lilly retorts. She thinks back to that night, so many months ago. To body shots. To Logan pouring half a dose of GHB into Duncan’s drink. She feels a burning rage in her chest and takes a moment to calm down.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening in this millennium.”

Lilly manages a smile. “You never know! It’s not like you to not be the voice of positivity, Ronica.”

“A lot of things have changed since you died, Lilly.”

“I know.”

They talk of other things for a while, and eventually they lie side by side on Veronica’s tiny bed. Lilly strokes her best friend’s—her sister’s—hair until she falls asleep.

Then she closes her eyes and wills herself to appear in the house where everything went wrong. Where her stupid need to show her mother she didn’t control her had blinded her to the monster that dwelled within. Where her sharp eyes and stupid choices had begun the sequence of events that had ended her life.

But she isn’t here to dwell on that. She has plans to deal with that later. For now, she is going to roust her ex-boyfriend out of his path of self-pity and Veronica-destruction.

He isn’t in his bedroom.

She is about to search the house for him when she sees a skinny blonde in disheveled clothing emerging from the pool house and heading out the back gate. _Ugh. Caitlyn Ford, really?_

She shakes her head. Clearly Logan’s tastes have grown less discerning since she died. She stalks into the pool house, pausing before the bed to grimace at the cameras she can’t ignore, now that she knows they’re there. She hears the shower running, and she walks through the bathroom door to see the boy she’d loved for a little while and betrayed in ways he doesn’t yet understand.

A naked Logan Echolls is always a sight to behold. Even if he is washing another girl off his skin. Even if his back is striped from Aaron’s rages, with large splotches of black and blue and yellow along his ribs. Lilly hadn’t known why he’d always wanted to make love in the dark or with his shirt on, until after she’d died. Now she does know, and it makes her sicker to think of the things she did under this very roof, with the man who’d left those marks on her then-boyfriend.

For a brief moment, guilt makes her freeze, and she takes half a step back to leave the bathroom, to wait for him outside.

But then she hears a soft sob from the shower. And she knows she can’t let this chance pass her by.

So she strides through the spray (or strides into it, with the spray going through her), and stands inches from his face. His eyes are closed, but she can see where the tears mingle with the water from the shower.

She climbs up on tiptoes and kisses his cheek. As the barest hint of salt touches her tongue, she feels the water from the shower drenching her hair, her clothes.

He shivers, then reaches for the nob, only for his hand to find her hip instead. He frowns and opens his eyes, and then they fly wide open, and she smiles at him, a little awkwardly.

He backs up against the glass wall of the shower. “What the fuck?”

She is still Lilly Kane. “Hi, lover.”

He blanches and goes white. Squeezes his eyes shut. “Jesus fucking Christ,” he says, his voice hoarse. “I’m not drunk enough for this.” He opens his eyes again, sees her still standing there. “Jesus.”

“Nah,” she can’t help but say. “Just Lilly Kane.”

But he ignores her. “I’m hallucinating. You’re dead. I’ve finally gone crazy.”

Taking pity on him, she crouches down, takes his hand. Ignores his general nakedness in a way she never would’ve been able to before his father had bashed her head in with an ashtray. Apparently, death was hell on the libido.

“You haven’t gone crazy, Logan. I’m here. I’m real.”

He blinks up at her, still disbelieving for one more moment. She smirks at him, and that seems to do it.

Suddenly she is hauled into his arms, and he’s holding her tightly enough that if she were still alive, it would’ve hurt. And he’s sobbing into her shoulder while holding her on his lap. Which is awkward because she’s never had to comfort a guy in this manner before—honestly, she’d never bothered to comfort anyone but Veronica in any manner that didn’t involve sex before—and, well, he’s still naked. And she’s still dead.

She pats his shoulder as best she can and lets him cry it out. Eventually his sobs quiet, and she helps him to his feet. She reaches over and turns the shower off, and he stares at her in awe.

“How are you here?” he asks. His voice is raw, his gaze desperate.

“I dunno,” she says honestly. “I died, and then there was this, and nobody could see me til I kissed Veronica’s tears one day and suddenly I had a body again.”

He frowns. “Veronica Mars?” A series of emotions flit across his face. Sadness, betrayal, resignation. He settles on anger. “Do you know what she’s done? What her father did?”

“Yes,” Lilly snaps, all sympathy gone. “She’s gone through hell without the support of the people who were supposed to be her friends. After her father pointed out the obvious, that my mom and dad are hiding something.”

He gapes. “The… obvious?” he croaks.

She flaps a hand. “Well, duh. You think the sheriff wouldn’t know it when my parents stonewalled his investigation? He’s not _stupid_ , Logan. And neither is Veronica. The rest of the 09ers, you included, I’m not so sure. You’ve been a shit to her. And if I didn’t have more important things to do, I would spend the rest of my afterlife kicking your asses for it.”

He smiles a little. “I always knew you loved her more than me.”

“Well, can you blame me?” She sees his face fall, and she softens. What is it with being dead that makes her so much more sympathetic to people’s feelings than when she was alive? It’s freaking _annoying_. “Look, just because I didn’t love you best, doesn’t mean I didn’t love you a lot, at one time. But we were over before we called it quits, and I think you know it, Logan. Or else what was the point of the letter you left in my car?”

He sighs. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” She looks him up and down and smirks when he flushes. “Why don’t we talk some more when you get dressed? I’ll wait in your room. You can expect a reaming because I really _am_ pissed about how you’ve been treating Veronica these past few months.”

“You could just wait outside—”

“No.” She won’t tell him about the cameras. God knows what he would do if he found out. “In your room.”

She doesn’t know if she’s likely to show up on cameras, but as she exits the bathroom, she makes a point to stop, stare into the lens, and say, “Aaron Echolls, I’m coming for you.” Then she smiles her best sharklike smile and saunters out toward the main house.

She hasn’t been in Logan’s room a minute before his door bursts open, and he stares at her for a long moment. It’s obvious he had half-convinced himself she wasn’t real, but she’s been prepared for that. She lies on her stomach on the bed and flips idly through the book she found on his nightstand. _One Hundred Years of Solitude_. Well, doesn’t that sound like a cheerful read?

She doesn’t look up as he approaches slowly, carefully. He lowers himself to sit on the edge of the bed. She sighs, shuts the book with a snap, and tosses it back onto his bedside table. “Couldn’t you stock up on glossies? Do you always have to read such boring, depressing things?”

“I find they match my mood.”

She snorts. “You and Veronica are so emo without me.”

“You died, Lilly. You were _murdered_.”

She shrugs. Wishes she could say “not my fault,” but in her new (after)life, she’s made a point to be honest where she can. So she changes the subject instead. “You need to tell her you’re sorry.”

He frowns. “For what?” But he tugs down his sleeves and she knows he knows exactly what for. He sighs. “I… I don’t even know where I would start. I thought she betrayed you.”

“She’s the _only_ one who has never betrayed me or the memory of me,” she says, and the way rage makes her voice shake and darkens her vision is almost scary.

She takes a breath. Tells herself to stay calm.

“Veronica’s not at fault here,” she says finally. “She’s done nothing wrong. And she’s investigating my murder. I need you to be there for her. I need you to keep her safe. I—” She freezes. Realizes what’s been bothering all this time. “I can’t protect her anymore. I couldn’t protect her at Shelly’s party. I can’t protect her at school. I need you to do it.”

Logan looks guilty at the mention of Shelly Pomroy’s party. As well he should. But there are other, guiltier parties than him, and Lilly lets it pass. He’s had a hard time of it too. And that brings her to her next point. “And she can be there for you, Lo. I was never really that good a friend to anyone but Veronica. I think you need someone, and I know the walking zombie you know as the Donut isn’t going to be able to be that person.”

“So you’re expecting me to just turn around and forgive the last year?” He grimaces.

“No,” she says, her voice hard. “I’m expecting you to turn around and start trying to make up for the last year. And earn her forgiveness.”

“She put a bong in my car!”

“You’ve done worse. So much worse, and you don’t even know it. And she doesn’t know what your dad is like, or she never would have done it.”

He gives her a dark look. “Are you sure about that?”

Exasperated, she smacks him over the head. “Yes, I’m sure about that. Now promise me you’ll talk to her tomorrow.”

“I don’t know, Lil. She might not listen to me.”

“Make her listen. She’s small. You can hold her in place if you need to. I’ll be there, even if you can’t see me. _Somebody_ needs to make sure you two idiots stop being idiots already.”

“It’s Saturday. I promised the guys I’d go surfing with them.”

She glares. “Weak, Logan. And not one of those guys are worth Veronica Mars’s pinkie finger, and you know it.”

He smiled a little. “Maybe I do.”

“I don’t care if you go surfing in the morning. Veronica deserves to sleep in anyway. But you are going to promise me you’ll talk to her.”

“Fine. I’ll go by her house and buy her lunch. She’ll be less likely to kill me in public.” Lilly gives him a look. “What?”

“You do know that she doesn’t live at her old house anymore, right?”

He frowns. “She doesn’t?”

“Ohmigod, I can’t believe you. You’re such a self-absorbed asshole. Her dad lost his _job_. Because my dad is an idiot who thinks my brother killed me.” Eyes wide, she claps a hand over her mouth when she realizes what she’s said.

Logan is gaping at her. “Your dad thinks Duncan killed you?”

She sighs. “I know you know about his episodes. Dad told me you’d seen Duncan trying to choke him that one time. Duncan found my body and had a fit. And my oh so loving and perceptive parents immediately jumped to the conclusion that he’d killed me.”

“And decided to cover it up,” Logan fills in, his eyes narrowed. “Which was what raised Sheriff Mars’s suspicions.”

“Exactly. Well, he’s not wrong about them hiding something. He just doesn’t know that they’re hiding the fact that they are idiots.”

Logan lies back on the bed. “God, what is wrong with this town?”

“Something in the water supply, maybe,” she suggests. “But seriously, Mr. Mars is like the last good dad standing.”

He looks up at her bitter tone. “Your dad loves you, Lil,” he says softly. “I’ve seen that.”

She sighs. “I know. But it doesn’t mean he’s a _good_ dad. He spent his money on me so he wouldn’t have to spend his time. He’s covering up for Duncan, but he didn’t have to stop the investigation into my death to do it, and he never even considered that Duncan didn’t do it, even accidentally. He sent some innocent guy to _jail_ so people would stop looking for who really killed me. You tell me how that makes a good guy, a good dad.”

“I don’t really have a great example to compare him to.”

She snorts at his wry tone, before sobering. “Well, Aaron will get what’s coming to him. I’ll make sure of it.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Gonna be my guardian angel, Lil?”

“Somebody’s got to,” she says, smirking. “Besides, one can only play ‘poor little dead girl’ for so long. Although avenging angel sounds way cooler than guardian angel.”

“I like the sound of either of those.”

“I would like the sound of you promising to talk to Ronica,” she reminds him.

He holds up his hands. “Fine, fine. I will talk to Veronica.”

“And apologize for being a jackass.”

“And apologize for being a jackass.”

“Good,” Lilly says, nodding in satisfaction. “Now I have one more order of business for tonight before I let you get your beauty sleep.”

He smirks in reply, but there’s a plea in his eyes. “You could just stay the night. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done it. And I could come up with all sorts of things for you to be mad at me for.”

She laughs. “Pay attention, lover.”

He sits up. “Okay, hit me.”

She lets her voice rise up into a shriek. “Caitliny _Ford_? What were you _thinking_ , Logan?”


End file.
